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SPEECH 



HON. ANSON BURLINGAME, 



OF MASSACHUSETTS, 



UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 



JUNE 2 1, 185 6 




CAMBRIDGE: 

PRINTED FOR PRIVATE DISTRIBUTION. 
1856. 



1- 



f (> 



V 



C A M B R I D G K : 
ALLEN AND KAHNHAM, STKIMCOTYPEKS AND IMUNTEHS. 



PKEFATOUY NOTE. 



Tins edition of Mr. Burlingame's speech is printed at the sujigestion 
of some of his constituents who have heretofore been liis political oppo- 
nents, but who believe that on this occasion he said the right word, in the 
right way, and at the riglit time. 

Considering tiie circumstances under which it was delivered, the speech 
has been regarded by persons of various political parties, and from dilFei^ 
ent sections of the country as equally remarkable for the bolchiess of its 
tone and for its freedom from extravagant and ortensive e))ithets. 

Tiie writer of this brief note is an old resident of IMr. Burlingame's 
district, but has uniformly voted against him, whenever he has been a can- 
didate for any political office. An old-fashioned Conservative, a " Web- 
ster Whig," the paramount principles of his political creed have been, the 
preservation of the Constitution and thk Union. To this end con- 
cessions and compromises were approved, and all who opposed them were 
censured. But since it appears that all concessions must be in favor of 
slavery, and all compromises that stootl in the way of its extension are 
broken when the conditions favoring that interest are fulfilled : and, more- 
over, when a determined and persistent effort is making to nationalize this 
sectional institution, and threats are thrown out that the Union will be 
dissolved if the slave power is checked in its arrogant assumjjtions, con- 
sistency to long cherished principles requires that the true Conservative 
utter and defend the old do(trine of our illustrious statesman, — Linr.KTY 
AND Union, now and forever, onk and inseparable ! 

It is gratifying to see so many patriots from all parties now unitins to 
maintain these principles. The recent outrages upon liberty, in Kansas 
and at Washington, have led thousands to see that there is but one great 
issue now pending in the politics of the country. The Democratic party 
has done justice to the President who has been false to these principles. 
The people will do justice to the party that follows his course. To the 
noble band whose rallying cry is " Liberty and Union," this speech will, 
it is believed, be welcome. 

Cambridge, July 4, 1856. 



SPEECH 

OF 

HON. ANSON BURLINGAME, 

OF MASSACHUSETTS, 

DELIVERED IN THE U. S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, JUNE 21, 1856. 



Mr. Chairman, — 

The House will bear witness that I have not 
pressed myself upon its deliberations. I never be- 
fore asked its indulgence. I have assailed no man, 
nor have I sought to bring reproach upon any man's 
State. But while such has been my course, as well 
as the course of my colleagues from Massachusetts, 
upon this floor, certain members have seen fit to assail 
the State which we represent, not only with words, 
but with blows. 

In remembrance of these things, and seizing the 
first opportunity which has presented itself for a long 
time, I stand here to-day to say a word for old Massa- 

1 =5= (8) 



6 SPEECH OF HON. .\NSON BURLINGAME. 

chusetts — not that she needs it; no, sir; for in all 
that constitutes true greatness — in all that gives ahid- 
ing strength — in great qualities of head and heart — 
in moral power — in material prosperity — in intel- 
lectual resources and physical ability — by the gen- 
eral judgment of mankind, according to her popula- 
tion, she is the first State. There does not live the 
man anywhere, who knows any thing, to whom praise 
of Massachusetts would not be needless. She is as far 
beyond that as she is beyond censure. Members here 
may sneer at her — they may praise her past at the 
expense of her present; but I say, with a full con- 
viction of its truth, that Massachusetts, in her present 
performances, is even greater than in her past recol- 
lections. And when I have said this, what more can 
I say? 

Sir, although I am here as her youngest and hum- 
blest member, yet, as her Representative, I feel that I 
am the peer of any man upon this floor. Occupying 
that high stand-point, with modesty, but witli firm- 
ness, I cast down her glove to the whole band of her 
assailants. 

She has been assailed in the House and out of the 
House, at the other end of the Capitol, and at the 
other end of the Avenue. There have been brought 
against her general charges and specific charges. I 
am sorry to find at the head of the list of her assail- 
ants tlie President of the United States, who not only 



SPEECH OF HON. ANSON BURLINGAME. 7 

assails Massachusetts, but the whole North. lie de- 
fends one section of the Union at the expense of the 
other. He declares that one section has ever been 
mindful o[ its constitutional obligations, and that the 
other has not. He declares that if one section of our 
country were a foreign country, the other would have 
just cause of war against it. And to sustain these 
remarkable declarations, he goes into an elaborate 
perversion of history, such as that A^irginia ceded her 
lands against the interests of the South, for the bene- 
fit of the North ; when the truth is, she ceded her 
lands, as New York and other States did, for the bene- 
fit of the whole country. She gave her lands to 
Freedom, because she thought Freedom was better 
than Slavery — because it was the policy of the times, 
and events have vindicated that policy. 

It is a perversion of history when he says that the 
territory of the country has been acquired more for 
the benefit of the North than for the South ; he says 
that substantially. Sir, out of the territory thus ac- 
quired, five slave States, with a pledge for four more, 
and two free States, have come into the Union ; and 
one of these, as we all know, fought its way through 
a compromise degrading to the North. 

The North does not object to the acquisition of 
territory when it is desired, but she desires that it 
shall be free. If such a complexion had been given 
to it, how different would have been the fortunes of 



8 SPEECH OF HON. ANSON BURLINGAIVIE. 

the Republic to-day! This may be ascertained by 
comparing the progress of Ohio with that of any slave 
State in the Mississippi Valley. It will appear more 
clearly by comparing the free with the slave regions. 
I have not time to do more than to present a general 
picture. 

Freedom and Slavery started together in the great 
race on this continent. In the very year the Pilgrim 
Fathers landed on Plymouth Rock, slaves landed in 
Virginia. Freedom has gone on, trampling down 
barbarism, and planting States — building the symbols 
of its faith by every lake and every river, mitil now 
the sons of the Pilgrims stand by the shores of the 
Pacific. Slavery has also made its way toward the 
setting sun. It has reached the Rio Grande on the 
south ; and the groans of its victims, and the clank of 
its chains, may be heard as it slowly ascends the 
■w^estern tributaries of the Mississippi River. Freedom 
has left the land bespangled with free schools, and 
filled the whole heavens with the shining towers of 
religion and civilization. Slavery has left desolation, 
ignorance, and death in its path. When we look at 
these things ; when we see what the country would 
have been had Freedom been given to the Territories; 
when we think what it would have been but for this 
blight in the bosom of the country ; that the whole 
South — that fair land God has blessed so much 
— would have been covered with cities, and villages, 



SPEECH OF IIOX. .LNSON BURLLXGAME. 9 

and railroads, and that in the whole country, in the 
place of twenty-five millions of people, thirty-five 
millions would have hailed the rising morn exultr 
ing in republican liberty — when we think of these 
things, how must every honest man — how must 
every man with Ijrains in his head, or heart in 
his bosom, regret that the policy of old Virginia, in 
her better days, did not become the animating policy 
of this expanding Republic ! 

It is a perversion of history, I say, when the Presi- 
dent intimates that the adoption of the Constitution 
abrogated the Ordinance of 1787. It was recognized 
by the first Congress which assembled under the Con- 
stitution ; and it has been sanctioned by nearly every 
President from "Washington down. It is a perversion 
of history when the President intimates that the Mis- 
souri Compromise was made against the interests of 
the South, and for the benefit of the North. The 
truth — the unmistakable truth is, that it was forced 
by the South on the North. It received the almost 
united vote of the South. It was claimed as a victory 
of the South. The men who voted for it were sus- 
tained in the South ; and those who voted for it in 
the North passed into oblivion; and though some of 
them are physically alive to-day, they are as politi- 
cally dead as are the President and his immediate 
advisers. Not only has the President perverted liis- 
torv, but he has turned sectionalist. He has become 



10 SPEECH OF HON. ANSON BURLING AME. 

the champion of sectionalism. He makes the extra- 
ordinary declaration, that if a State is refused ad- 
mission into the Union because her constitution 
embraced Slavery as an institution, then one section 
of the country would of necessity be compelled to 
dissolve its connection with the people of the other 
section ! What does he mean ? Does he mean to 
say that there are traitors in the South? Does he 
mean to say, if they were voted down, that then they 
ought not to submit ? If he does, and if they mean 
to- back him in the declaration, then T say the quicker 
we try the strength of this great Government the 
bette-r. Not only has he said that, but members have 
said on this floor, again and again, that if the Fugitive 
Slave Law — which has nothing sacred about it — 
which I deem unconstitutional — which South Caro- 
lina deems unconstitutional — if that law be repealed, 
that this Union will then cease to exist. 

Mr. Keitt. — I wish to know from the gentleman 
from Massachusetts, by what authority he says South 
Carolina holds the Fugitive Slave Law to be unconsti- 
tutional ? 

Mr. Burlingame. — By the authority of the Charles- 
ton Mercury. 

Taking that paper from his pocket, Mr. B. read the 
following : — 

" Of the action of Massachusetts in the abrogation 
of the Fugitive Slave Law, we have no complaint to 



SPEECH OF HON. ANSON BURLINGAME. 11 

make. It was from the first a miserable illiifsion ; 
and worse, in fiict, for it ivas an infmigancnt upon one of 
the mod cheris/ied j)riiicijjles of the Condilidion, which pro- 
vides that fugitives from labor, * upon demand, shall 
be delivered up,' but gives no power to Congress to 
act in this affair. The tenth amendment to the Con- 
stitution provides that ' the powers not delegated to 
the United States are reserved to the States or to the 
people.' The clause above confers no power, but is 
the naked declaration of a right ; and the power, not 
being conferred, results to the States, as one of the 
incidents of sovereignty too dear to be trusted to the 
<i;eneral o-overnment. 

" Our southern members strove for the passage of 
the law, and strove honestly ; but it shows tlie evils 
of our unfortunate condition, that, in the urgency of 
our contest with an aggressive adversary, we lose 
the landmarks of principle. To obtain an illusive 
triumph, we pressed the Government to assume a 
power not conferred by the instrument of its crea- 
tion, and to establish a precedent by which, in all after 
time, it will be authorized to assume whatever right 
may have no constitutional right of enforcement; 
and, wearied with so many efforts to confine the Gov- 
ernment to its limits of legitimate powers, we are 
pleased to have assistthice from another quarter ; and 
if the question shall be determined in her favor, we 
will sincerely rejoice in such a vindication of the 
Constitution." 



12 SPEECH OF HON. ANSON BURLINGAME. 

That is my authority, but I do not wish to be 
interrupted ; I have not time. I say that it is not for 
the President and members on this floor to determine 
the Hfe of this Union ; this Union rests in the hearts 
of the American people, and cannot be eradicated 
thence. Whenever any person shall lift his hand to 
smite down this Union, the people will subjugate him 
to Liberty and the Constitution. I do not wish to dwell 
on the President and what he has said. Notwithstand- 
ing all this perversion of history — notwithstanding 
his violated pledges — and notwithstanding his warlike 
exploits at Greytown and Lawrence — his servility has 
been repaid with scorn. I am glad of it. The South 
was right. When a man is false to the convictions of 
his own heart and to Freedom, he cannot be trusted 
with the delicate interests of Slavery. I cannot ex- 
press the delight I feel in the poetic justice that has 
been done ; but, at the same time, I am not unmindful 
of the deep ingratitude that first lured him to ruin, and 
then deserted and left him alone to die. [Applause.] 
If I were not too much of a Native American I would 
quote and apply to him the old Latin words, " De 
mortiiis nil nisi bommi" — speak nothing but good of 
the dead. I can almost forgive him, considering his 
condition, the blistering words he let fall upon us 
the other night, when he went through the ordeal 
of ratifying the nomination of James Buchanan. 
He said that we had received nothing at the hands 



SPEECH OF HON. ANSON BURLING AME. i^ 

of the Government save its protection and its politi- 
cal blessings. "We have not certainly received any 
offices; and as for its protection and political bless- 
ings, let the silence above the graves of those who 
sleep in their bloody shrouds in Kansas answer. 

There have been general and specific charges made 
against Massachusetts. The general charge, when- 
expressed in polite language, is, that she has not l)een 
faithful to her constitutional obligations. I deny it. 
I call for proof I ask when ? where ? how ? I say, 
on the contrary, that from the time when this Govern- 
ment came from the brains of her statesmen, and the 
unconquerable arms of her warriors, she has been 
loyal to it. In peace, she has added to it renown ; and 
in war, her sons have crowded the way to death as to- 
a festival. She has quenched the fires of rebellion on 
her own soil without Federal aid. And when the ban- 
ners of nullification flew in the southern sky, speaking 
through the lips of Webster, in Faneuil Hall, she 
stood by Jackson and the Union. No man speakiug^ 
in her name — no man wearing her ermine, or clotiied 
with her authority — ever did any thing, or said any 
thhig, or decided any thing, not in accordance with her 
constitutional obligations. Yet, sir, the hand of the 
Federal Government has been laid heavily upon her. 

Tliat malignant spirit which has usurped this Gov- 
eniment through the negligence of the people, too- 
long has pursued her with rancor and bitterness. 

9 



14 SPEECH OF HON. ANSON BURLING AJIE. 

Before its invidious legislation, she has seen her 
commerce perish, and ruin, like a devastating fire, 
sweep through her fields of industry; but, amid all 
these things, Massacliusetts has always lifted up 
her voice with unmurmuring devotion to the Union. 
She has heard the Federal drum in her streets; 
she has protected the person of that most odious 
man — odious both at the North and the South — 
the slave hunter. She has protected him when her 
soil throbbed with indignation from the sea to the 
New York line. Sir, the temples of justice there 
have been clothed in chains. The Federal courts in 
other States have been closed against her, and her 
citizens have been imprisoned and she has had no 
redress. 

Yet, notwithstanding all these things, Massachu- 
setts has always been faithful and loyal to the Con- 
stitution. You may ask why, if she has been so 
wronged, so insulted, has she been so true and faithful 
to the Union ? Sir, because she knew, in her clear 
head, that these outrages came not from the generous 
hearts of the American people. She knew that when 
Justice should finally assume the reins of Govern- 
ment, all would be well. She knew that, w^hen the 
Government ceased to foster the interests of Slavery 
alone, her interests would be regarded and the whole 
country be blessed. It was this high constitutional 
hope that has always swayed the head and heart of 



SPEECU OF HON. ANSON BURLLNG.LME. 15 

Massachusetts, and which has made her look out of 
the gloom of the present, and anticijiate a glorious 
future. So much in relation to the general charge 
aiirainst Massachusetts. 

There are specific charges upon which I shall dwell 
for a moment. One is that she has organized an 
" Emigrant Aid Societ}^" Did you not tell Massachu- 
setts that the people of Kansas were to be left perfect- 
ly free to mould her institutions as they thought best? 
She knew, and she told you, that your doctrine of 
squatter sovereignty was a delusion and a snare. She 
opposed it as long as she could here ; and when she 
could do it no longer, she accepted the battle upon 
your pledge of fair play. She determined to make 
Kansas a free State. In this high motive the Emi- 
grant Aid Soci,ety had its origin. Its objects are two- 
fold — freedom for Kansas, and pecuniary reward. 
And it is so organized that pecuniary benefit cannot 
How to stockholders except tlirough the prosper- 
ity of tliose whom it aids. The idea of the society 
is this : to take capital and place it in advance of 
civilization ; to take the elements of civilization, the 
saw-mill, the church, the school-house, and plant them 
in the wilderness, as an inducement to the emigrant. 
It is a peaceful society ; it has never armed one 
man ; it has never paid one man's passage to Kansas. 
It never asked — though I think it should have asked 
— the political sentiments of any man whom it has 



16 SPEECH OF HON. ANSON BURLINGAJVIE. 

assisted to emigrate to Kansas. It has invested one 
hundred thousand dollars, and it has conducted from 
Massachusetts to Kansas from twelve to fifteen hun- 
dred of the flower of her people. Such is the Emi- 
grant Aid Society, such is its origin, and such its ac- 
tion. It is this society, so just and legal in its origin 
and its action, that has been made the pretext for 
the most bitter assaults upon Massachusetts. Sir, it 
is Christianity organized. 

How have these legal and these proper measures 
been met by those who propose to make Kansas a slave 
State ? The people of Massachusetts would not com- 
plain, if the people who differ from them should go 
there to seek a peaceful solution of the conflicting ques- 
tions. But how have they been met ? By fraud and 
violence, by sackings, and burnings, and murders. 
Laws have been forced upon them, such as you have 
^heard read to-day by the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. 
Colfax], so atrocious that no man has risen here to de- 
fend one single one of them. Men have been j^laced 
over them Avhom they never elected ; and this day, as 
has been stated by the gentleman from Indiana, civil 
"war rages from one end of Kansas to the other. Men 
have been compelled to leave their peaceful pursuits, 
4ind starvation and death stare them in the face, and yet 
the Government stands idle — no, not idle ; it gives its 
anighty arm to the side of the men who are trampling 
down law and order there. The United States troops 



SPEECH UF HON. ANSON l!Ll!LLNXiAME. 17 

have not been permitted to protect the Free State 
men. When they have desired to do so, they have 
been withdrawn. I cannot enter into a detail of all 
thj lacts. It is a fact that war rages there to-day. 
Men kill each other at si«»:ht. All these thin(ji:s are 
known, and nobody can deny them. All the westr 
ern winds are burdened with the news oi' them, 
and they are substantiated equally by both sides. 

lias the Government no powder to make peace in 
Kansas, and to protect citizens there under the or- 
ganic law of the Territory ? I ask, in the name of old 
Massachusetts, if our honest citizens who went to 
Kansas to build up homes for themselves, and to 
secure the blessings of civilization, are not entitled to 
protection ? She throws the responsibility upon this 
Administration, and holds it accountable ; and so will 
the people at the polls next November. 

Another charge is, that Massachusetts has passed 
a personal liberty ])ill. Well, sir, I say that Massa- 
chusetts, for her local legislation, is not responsible to 
this House or to any member of it. I say, sir, 
if her laws were as bad as those .atrocious laws of 
Kansas, 30U can do nothing with her. I say, if her 
statute-books, instead of being filled with generous 
legislation — legislation which ought to be interest- 
ing t(j her assailants, because it is in favor ol' the 
idiotic and the blind — [laughter] — were iilled, like 

tliosL' of the State of Alabama, with laws covering: 

<■) ■■]■■ 



18 SPEECH OF HON. ANSON BURLINGAAIE. 

the State with whippiug-posts, keeping half of her 
people in absolute slavery, and nearly all the other 
half in subjection to twenty-nine thousand slave- 
holders; if the slaveholders themselves were not per- 
mitted to trade with or teach their slaves as they 
•choose ; if ignorance were increasing faster than the 
population — I say, even then, you could not do 
any thing here with the local laws of Massachusetts. 
I say, the presumption is, that the law, having been 
passed by a sovereign State, is constitutional. If it 
is not constitutional, then, sir, when the proj)er trijju- 
nal shall have decided that question, what is there, 
I ask, in the history of Massachusetts, which will lead 
us to believe that she will not abide by that result ? 
I say, there is nothing in the history of the State 
of Mississippi, or of South Carolina, early or recent, 
which makes Massachusetts desirous of emulating 
their example. I, sir, agree with the South Carolina 
■authority I have quoted here, in regard to the legisla- 
tion of Massachusetts. 

Sir, my time is passing away, and I must hasten on. 
The State of Massachusetts is the guardian of the 
rights of her citizens, and of the inhabitants within 
her border lines. If her citizens go beyond the line, 
into distant lands or upon the ocean, then they look 
to the Federal arm for protection. But old Massachu- 
«etts is the State which is to secure to her citizens the 
inestimable blessing of trial by jury and the writ of 



SPEECH OF HON. ANSON BURLING AME. 19 

habeas corpus. All these things must come from her, 
and not from the Federal Government. I believe, with 
her great statesmen and with her people, that the Fugi- 
tive Slave Law is unconstitutional. Mr. Webster, as an 
original question, thought it was not constitutional ; Mr. 
Eantoul, a brilliant statesman of Massachusetts, said 
the same thing ; they both thought that the clause of 
the Constitution was addressed to the States. Mr. 
Webster bowed to the decision of the Supreme Court, 
in the Prigg case ; Mr. Rantoul did not. Massachu- 
setts believes it to be unconstitutional ; but whether it 
be constitutional or not, she means, so long as the 
Federal Government undertakes to execute that law, 
that the Federal government shall do it with its own 
instruments, vile or otherwise. She says that no one 
clothed with her authority, shall do any thing to help 
in it, so long as the Federal Government undertakes to 
do it. But, sir, I j^ass from this. 

I did intend to reply seriatim to all the attacks 
which have been made upon the State, but I have not 
half time enough. The gentleman from Mississippi 
[Mr. Bennett], after enumerating a great many things 
he desired Massachusetts to do, said, amongst other 
things, that she must tear out of her statute-book 
this personal liberty law. When she had done that, 
and a variety of other things too numerous to men- 
tion, then, he said, " the South would forgive jNIassa- 
chusetts." The South forgive Massachusetts ! Sir, for- 



20 SPEECH OF HON. ANSON BURLING.VME. 

giveness is an attribute of Divinit3^ The South has it 
not. Sir, forgiveness is a higher quality than justice 
even. The South — I mean the Slave Power — can- 
not comprehend it. Sir, Massachusetts has already 
forgiven the South too many debts and too many 
insults. If we should do all the things the gentle- 
man from Mississippi desired us to do, then the gen- 
tleman from Alabama [Mr. Shorter] comes in, and 
insists that Massachusetts shall do a great variety 
of other things before the South probably will forgive 
her. Among other things, he desired that Massa- 
chusetts should blot out the fact that Gen. Hull, who 
surrendered Detroit, had his home in Massachusetts. 
Wh}', no, sir, she does not desire even to do that, for 
then she would have to ])lot out the fact that his 
gallant son had his home there — that gallant son 
who fell fighting for his country in the same war, at 
Lundy's Lane — that great battle where Col. Miller, 
(a Massachusetts man by adoption,) when asked if he 
could storm certain heights, replied, in a modest Mas- 
sachusetts manner, '' I will try, sir." He stormed the 
heights. 

The gentleman desires, also, that we should blot out 
the history of the connection of Massachusetts with 
the last war. Oh, no ! She cannot do that. She 
cannot so dim the lustre of the American arms. She 
cainiot so wrong the Republic. Where, then, would 
he your great sea-fights? "Where, then, would be 



SPEECH OF HON. ANSON BURLING AME. 21 

the glory of "Old Ironsides," whose scuppers ran red 
with Massachusetts blood ? Where, then, would be 
the history of the daring of those brave fishermen, 
who swarmed from all her bays and all her ports, 
sweeping the enemy's commerce from the most dis- 
tant seas ? Ah, sir ! she cannot afford to blot out that 
history. You, sir, cannot afford to let her do it — no, 
not even the South. She sustained herself in the 
last war ; she paid her own expenses, and has not yet 
been paid entirely from the Treasury of the nation. 
The enemy hovered on her coast with his ships as 
numerous almost as the stars. He looked on that 
warlike land, and the memory of the olden time came 
back upon him. He remembered how, nearly forty 
^•ears before, he had trodden on that soil ; he remem- 
bered how vauntingly he invaded it, and how speedily 
he left it. He turned his glasses towards it, and be- 
held people rushing from the mountains to the sea 
to defend it ; and he dared not attack it. Its capital 
stood in the salt sea spray, yet he could not take it. 
He sailed south where there was another capital, not 
far from where we now stand, forty miles from the 
sea. A few staggering, worn-out sailors and soldiers 
came here. They took it. How it was defended, let 
the heroes of Bladensburg answer ! [Laughter.] 

Sir, the gentleman from South Carolina [Mr. Kkitt] 
made a speech, and if I may be allowed to coin a 
word, I will say it had more caniankerobilt/ in it than 



22 SPEECH OF HON. ANSON BURLINGAME. 

any speech I ever heard on this floor. [Renewed 
laughter.] It was certainly very eloquent in some 
portions — very eloquent indeed, for the gentleman 
has indisputably an eloquent utterance, and an elo- 
quent temperament. I do not wish to criticize it 
much, but it opens in the most extraordinary manner 
with a " weird torchlight," and then he introduces a 
dead man, and then he galvanizes him, and puts him 
in that chair, and then he makes him " point his cold 
finger " around this Hall. Why, it almost frightens me 
to allude to it. And then he turns it into a theatre. 
And then he changes or transmogrifies the gentleman 
from Indiana [Mr. Colfax], who has just spoken, into 
a snake, and makes him "wriggle up to the foot- 
lights ; " and then he gives the snake hands, and then 
"mailed hands," and with one of them he throws off 
Cuba, and with the other clutches all the Canadas. 
Then he has men with "glozing mouths," and they 
are "singing psalms through their noses," and are 
moving down upon the South "like an army with 
banners." Frightful, is it not ? He talks about rot- 
ting on dead seas. He calls our party at one time 
a " toad," and then he calls it a. " lizard," " and more, 
which e'en to mention would be unlawful." Sir, his 
rhetoric seems to have the St. Vitus's dance. [Laugh- 
ter.] He mingles metaphors in such a manner as 
would delight the most extravagant Milesian. 

But I pass from his logic and his rhetoric, and also 



SPEECH OF HON. .VNSON BURLINGAME. 23 

over some historical mistakes, much of the same na- 
ture as those made by the President, which I have 
ah'cady pointed out, and come to some of his sen- 
tences, in -which terrific questions and answers ex- 
plode. He answers, hotly and taimtingly, that the 
South wants none of our vagaljond philanthropy. 
Sir, when the 3'ellow pestilence lluttered its Mings 
over the Southern States, and when Massachusetts 
poured out her treasures to a greater extent, in pro- 
portion to her population, tlian any other State, was 
that vagabond philanthropy? I ask the people of 
Virij-inia and Louisiana? 

o 

But, sir, the gentleman was most tender and most 
plaintive when he described the starving operatives. 
AVhy, sir, the eloquence was most overwhehning upon 
some of my colleagues. I thought I saw the iron 
face of our Speaker soften a little, when he listened 
to the unexpected sympathy of the gentleman with 
the hardships of his early life. Sir, he was an opera- 
tive from boyhood to manhood — and a good one too. 
Ah, sir, he did not appreciate, as he tasted the sweet 
bread of honest toil, his sad condition. He did not 
think, as he stood in the music of the machinery, 
which came from his cunning liniid, how much better 
it would have been for him had he been born a slave, 
[laughter,] and put under the gentleman from South 
Carolina — a kind master, as 1 have no doubt he is 
— where he would have been well fed and clothed, 



24 SPEECH OF HON. ANSON BURLINGAME. 

and would have known none of the trials which 
doubtless met him on every hand. How happy he 
would have been if, instead of being a Massachusetts 
operative, he had been a slave in South Carolina, 
fattening, singing, and dancing upon the banks of 
some SoLithern river. [Great laughter.] 

Sir, if the gentleman will go to my district, and 
look upon those operatives and mechanics ; if he will 
look upon some of those beautiful models which come 
from their brains and hands, and which from time to 
time leap upon the waters of the Atlantic, outflying 
all other clippers, bringing home wealth and victory 
with all the winds of heaven, he might have reason to 
change his views. Let him go there, and, even after 
all he said, he may speak to those men, and convince 
them, if he can, of their starving condition. I will 
guaranty his personal safety. I believe the people 
of Massachusetts would pour forth their heart's blood 
to protect even him in the right of freedom of speech ; 
and that is saying a great deal, after all that has hap- 
pened. Let him go to the great county of Worcester — 
that beehive of operatives and Abolitionists, as it has 
been called, — and he will find the annual product of 
that county greater, in proportion to the population, 
than that of any other equal population in the world, 
as will be found by reference to a recent speech of ex- 
Governor Boutwell, of our State. The next county, 
I believe, in respect to the amount of products in pro- 



SPEECH OF HON. ANSON BUKLINGAME. 25 

portion to population, is away up in Vermont. Sir, 
let him uo and look at these men — these Abolition- 
ists Avho, we arc told, meddle with everybody's busi- 
ness but their own. They certainly take time enough 
to attend to their own business, to accomplish these 
results which I have named. 

The gentleman broke out in an exceedingly explo- 
sive question, something like this : I do not know 
if my memory can do justice to the language of the 
gentleman, but it was something like this : " Did not 
the South, equally with the North, bare her forehead 
to the God of Battles ? " I answer plainly, No, sir, 
she did not ; she did not. Sir, Massachusetts furnished 
more men in the Revolution than the whole South put 
together, and more by tenfold than South Carolina. 
I am not including, of course, the militia — the con- 
jectured militia furnished by that State. There is no 
proof that they were ever engaged in any battle. I 
mean the regulars ; and I say that Massachusetts fur- 
nished more than ten times as many men as South Car- 
olina. I say, on the authority of a standard historian, 
once a member of this House, (Mr. Sabine, in his His- 
tory of the Loyalists,) that more New England men 
now lie buried in the soil of South Carolina than there 
were of South Carolinians, who left their State to 
fight the battles of the country. I say when 
General Lincoln was defending Charleston, he was 
compelled to give up its defence because the people 

3 



26 SPEECH OF HON. ANSON BURLING AME. 

of that city would not fight. When General Greene, 
that Rhode Island blacksmith, took command of the 
Southern army, South Carolina had not a Federal sol- 
dier in the field ; and the people of that State would 
not furnish supplies to his army ; while the British ar- 
my in the State were furnished with supplies almost 
exclusively from the people of South Carolina. While 
the American army could not be recruited, the ranks 
of the British army were rapidly filled from that State. 

The British post of Ninety-six was garrisoned 
almost exclusively from South Carolina. Rawdon's re- 
serve corps was made up almost entirely by South 
Carolinians. Of the eight hundred prisoners who were 
taken at the battle of King's Mountain — of which we 
have heard so much — seven hundred of them were 
Southern tories. The Maryland men gained the lau- 
rels of the Cowpens. Kentuckians, Virginians, and 
North Carolinians gained the battle of King's Moun- 
tain. Few South Carolinians fought in the battles of 
Eutaw, Guilford, etc. They were chiefly fought by 
men out of South Carolina; and they would have 
won greater fame and brighter laurels if they had 
not been opposed chiefly by the citizens of the soil. 
Well might the British commander boast that he had 
reduced South Carolina into allegiance ! 

But, sir, I will not proceed further with this history, 
out of regard for the fame of our common country ; 
out of regard for the patriots — the Sumters, the 



SPEECH OF HON. .VNSON BURLING.UIE. 27 

Marions, the Eutledges, the Pinkneys, the Haynes 
— truer patriots, if possible, than those of any other 
State, Out of regard for these men, I will not quote 
from a letter of the patriot Governor Mathews to 
General Greene, in which he complains of the selfish- 
ness and utter imbecility of a great portion of the 
people of South Carolina. 

But, Mr. Chairman, all these assaults upon the State 
of Massachusetts sink into insignificance compared 
with the one I am about to mention. On the 10th of 
Mav, it was announced that Mr. Sumner would address 
the Senate upon the Kansas question. The jfloor of the 
Senate, the galleries, and avenues leading thereto, 
were thronged with an expectant audience ; and many 
of us left our places in this House to hear the Massa- 
chusetts orator. To say that we were delighted with 
the speech we heard, would but faintly express the 
deep emotions of our hearts, awakened by it. I need 
not speak of the classic purity of its language, nor of the 
nobility of its sentiments. It was heard by many ; it 
has been read by millions. There has been no such 
speech made in the Senate since the days when those 
Titans of American eloquence — the Websters and 
the Ilaynes, contended with each other for mastery. 

It was severe, because it was launched against 
tyranny. It was severe as Chatham was severe when 
he defended the feeble colonies against the giant op- 
pression of the mother country. It was made in the 



28 SPEECH OF HON. ANSON BURLING AME. 

face of a hostile Senate. It continued tlirough tlie 
greater portion of two days ; and jet, during that 
time, the speaker was not once called to order. This 
fact is canclusive as to the personal and parliamentary 
decorum of the speech. He had provocation enough. 
His State had been called " hypocritical." He him- 
self had been called " a puppy," " a fool," " a fanatic," 
and " a dishonest man." Yet he was parliamentary 
from the beginning to the end of his speech. No 
man knew better than he did the proprieties of the 
place, for he had always observed them. Xo man 
knew better than he did parliamentary law, because 
he had made it the study of his life. No man saw 
more clearly than he did the flaming sword of the 
Constitution turning every way guarding all the ave- 
nues of the Senate. But he was not thinking of these 
things ; he was not thinking then of the privileges of 
the Senate, nor of the guarantees of the Constitution. 
He was there to denounce tyranny and crime ; and he 
did it. He was there to speak for the rights of an 
empire, and he did it bravely and grandly. 

So much for the occasion of the speech. A word, 
and I shall be pardoned, about the speaker himself 
He is my friend ; for many and many a year I have 
looked to him for guidance and light, and I never 
looked in vain ; he never had a personal enemy in 
his life ; his character is as pure as the snow that 
falls on his native hills; his heart overflows with 



SPEECH OF HON. AXSOX BURLIXGAME. 29 

kindness for every being having the upright form of 
man ; he is a ripe scholar, a ehivah-ic gentleman, and 
a warm-hearted, true friend. lie sat at the feet of 
Channing and drank in the sentiments of that noljle 
soul. He Ijathed in the learning and undying love 
of the great jurist, Story ; and the hand of Jackson, 
with its honors and its offices, sought him early in 
life, but he shrank from them with instinctive mod- 
esty. Sir, he is the pride of Massachusetts. His 
mother Commonwealth found him adornintr the hiuh- 
est walks of literature and law, and she bade him go 
and grace somewhat the rough character of political 
life. The people of Massachusetts — the old, and the 
young, and the middle-aged — now pay their full 
homage to the beauty of his public and private char- 
acter. Such is Charles Sumner. 

On the 22d day of May, when the Senate and the 
House had clothed themselves in mourning for a 
brother fallen in the battle of life in the distant State 
of Missouri, the Senator from Massachusetts sat in 
the silence of the Senate Chamber, engaged in the em- 
ployments appertaining to his office, when a member 
from this House, who had taken an oath to sustain 
the Constitution, stole into the Senate, that place 
which had hitherto been held sacred aijrainst vie- 
lence, and smote him as Cain smote his brother. 

Mr. Keitt (in his seat). — That is false. 

Mr. BuRLLNGAME. — 1 wlll uot bandy epithets with 



30 SPEECH OF HON. ANSON BURLINGAilE. 

the gentleman. I am responsible for my own lan- 
guage. Doubtless lie is responsible for his. 

Mr. Keitt. — I am. 

Mr. BuRLiNGAME. — I shall stand by mine. 

One blow was enough ; but it did not satiate the 
wrath of that spirit which had pursued him through 
two days. Again and again, quicker and faster fell 
the leaden blows, until he was torn away from his 
victim, when the Senator from Massachusetts fell in 
the arms of his friends, and his blood ran down on the 
Senate floor. Sir, the act was brief, and my comments 
on it shall be brief also. I denounce it in the name 
of the Constitution it violated. I denounce it in the 
name of the sovereignty of Massachusetts, which was 
stricken down by the blow. I denounce it in the 
name of civilization, which it outraged. I denounce 
it in the name of humanity. I denounce it in the 
name of that fair play which bullies and prize- 
fighters respect. What! strike a man when he is 
pinioned — when he cannot respond to a blow ! Call 
you that chivalry ? In Avhat code of honor did you 
get your authority for that ? I do not believe that 
member has a friend so dear who must not, in his 
heart of hearts, condemn the act. Even the member 
himself, if he has left a spark of that chivalry and 
gallantry attributed to him, must loathe and scorn the 
act. God knows, I do not wish to speak unkindly or 
in a spirit of revenge ; but I owe it to my manhood, 



SPEECH OF HON. ANSON BURLING AME. oi 

and the noble State I in part represent, to express my 
deep abhorrence of the act. But much as I repro- 
bate the act, mucli more do I reprobate the conduct 
of those who Avere by and saw the outrage perpe- 
trated. 

Sir, especially do I notice the conduct of that Sen- 
ator recently from the free platform of Massachu- 
setts, with the odor of her hospitality on him, who 
stood there, not only silent and quiet while it was 
going on, but, when it was over, approved the act. 
And worse : when he had time to cool, when he 
had slept on it, he went into the Senate Chamber 
of the United States and shocked the sensibilities of 
the w^orld by approving it. Another Senator did not 
take part because he feared his motives might be 
questioned, exhibiting as extraordinary a delicacy as 
that individual who refused to rescue a drowning 
mortal, because he had not been introduced to him. 
[Laughter.] Another was not on good terms ; and 
yet, if rumor be true, that Senator has declared that 
himself and family are more indebted to Mr. Sumner 
than to any other man ; yet, when he saw him borne 
bleeding by, he turned and went on the other side. 
Oh, magnanimous Slidell ! Oh, prudent Douglas ! 
Oh, audacious Toombs ! 

Sir, there are questions arising out of this, which 
far transcend those of a mere personal nature. Of 
those personal considerations I shall speak when 



dJ SPEECH OF HON. ANSON BUKLINGAME. 

the question comes properly before us, if I am per- 
mitted to do so. The higher question involves 
the very existence of the government itself If, sir, 
freedom of speech is not to remain to us, what is all 
this government worth ? If we from Massachusetts, 
or any other State — Senators or members of the 
House — are to be called to account by some " gal- 
lant nephew" of some "gallant uncle," w^hen we 
utter something which does not suit their sensitive 
natures, we desire to know it. 

If the conflict is to be transferred from this peace- 
ful, intellectual field, to one where, it is said, " honors 
are easy and responsibilities equal," then we desire to 
know it. Massachusetts, if her sons and Representa- 
tives are to have the rod held over them, if these 
things are to continue, the time may come — though 
she utters no threats — when she may be called upon 
to withdraw them to her own bosom, wdiere she can 
furnish to them that protection which is not vouch- 
safed to them under the flag of their common coun- 
try. But, while she permits us to remain, w^e shall do 
our duty — our whole duty. We shall speak whatr 
ever we choose to speak, when we will, where we will, 
and how we will, regardless of all consequences. 

Sir, the sons of Massachusetts are educated at the 
knees of their mothers, in the doctrines of peace and 
good-will, and, God knows, they desire to cultivate 
those feelings — feelings of social kindness, and j)ublic 



SPEECH OF HON. ANSON BURLINGAME. 33 

kindness. The House will bear witness that we have 
not violated or trespassed upon any of them ; but, sir, 
if we are pushed too long and too far, there are men 
from the old Commonwealth of Massachusetts who 
will not shrink from a defence of freedom of speech, 
and the honored State they represent, on any field 
where they may be assailed. 



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